Of Old Enemies and Family Feuds
by Kortamu
Summary: A scene from a story I have floating in my head. My own creation.


There is no disclaimer, because this is all mine. It's a random scene of a huge storyline that I have in my head. I tend to think of the stuff in the middle of my stories first, then the end, and _then_ the beginning.

Enjoy.

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As the city market bustled, a deafening roar shook the ground; something crashed through the underbrush just to the north. People yelled and ran, some leaving their newly-bought belongings. A woman lost her baby and two-year-old in the scramble for safety. Money was strewn everywhere, along with exotic fruits and jewelry. Anything one could imagine littered the ground.

The source of the noise then proceeded to trample everything in its path, the town, the goods, the people- everything. Then, as suddenly as it had come, it was gone. Gone, in a trumpeting orchestra of unorganized chaos. Soon after, the city's population came out to inspect the damage. Thirteen people killed, forty severely injured. And as the city mourned its loss, a glint of red flashed in the wilderness.

/- -\

"And here we are! Behold, the city of-" Makoto announced, opening up a pathway from the rainforest. "…Tamara…" he finished slowly, his once happy countenance melting into one of confused horror. "My god- what happened?" he asked no one in particular as he entered the ruins of the once prosperous city, followed by Sky and the twins. Silver Fang hung back, staying in the shade of the trees. She recognized the aura.

It was one of the very few she feared.

The others went further into the destruction, not showing any signs of knowing she wasn't behind them. For once the people didn't seem to be afraid of Makoto as he approached them.

"I'm sorry you've had to see the city in such disrepair, sir," She heard one woman tell him. She was explaining what had caused the destruction when the boy excused himself. Fang noticed he was heading back toward her.

"So what happened?" The demi-goddess asked nonchalantly, leaning up against a tree behind her.

Makoto stepped into the forest, allowing the opening to close up behind him. Fang could clearly see his warm sapphire eyes in the darkness. "Elephant stampede. She said someone has been causing almost two or three every day around this area."

"Oh. Well, then there's no reason to stay here. Let's keep moving." Fang turned to go back.

"But these people aren't afraid of me!" He countered cheerfully.

"Good. Then that must mean that there's something worse than Kiro out there. And it also means we don't want to stay." The girl began walking away, but Makoto's accusing voice stopped her dead cold.

"You're not avoiding Tamara City, are you, Fang?" He tilted his head to the side.

Fang turned around. "No. But if the city's in ruins, there's no reason to stay."

"We should try to help them rebuild it."

At those words Fang walked up to Makoto. "If you want to spend the rest of your life picking up rocks, then be my guest. But don't drag my ass into it." She walked away.

"You're afraid of whatever's out there, aren't you?" Makoto said, amazed. He had a disbelieving grin plastered across his face. A moment later it collapsed as he found himself pinned to the ground of the ruined city, a dagger at his throat.

There was an eruption of "Oohs" from the twins' direction. Sky hushed them. The people had fallen silent. In fact, the animals, the insects, everything stood still. Nothing, no one moved. "Don't ever say that again," Fang growled. She leaned to his ear, putting a little more pressure on the dagger and creating a thin, shallow cut, and whispered, "Unless you intend to meet my father."(1)

She moved up and locked eyes with him, and without realizing it, licked the blood away, letting her saliva heal the wound she had inflicted. She released him from her grasp and walked away, leaving a very confused and unusually frightened Makoto.

As the demi-goddess walked through them, the citizens backed away. They seemed more afraid of her than the ones who knew of Kiro. One of them was brave enough to block her path out of the city. "What do you want?" she snapped.

The man looked her full in the face, and eyes that matched her own pierced through her soul. "I want you to reverse the damage you have inflicted on this innocent city. And then I want you to apologize."

"What? I didn't do a thing to your goddamned village! Go away and leave me alone!" She pushed past him, but his icy hand on her throat made her stop. "Let go now. Before you lose your life."

"You wouldn't dare kill me. Now do as you are told." The man smirked, but his smirk disappeared when one of the twins', Hatsu's, voice was heard.

"Hey, leave her alone! She didn't do anything!" The man released Fang and turned to the small boy. Hatsu attempted a fireball, but it puffed out as a ball of smoke.

"Take them to the dungeon. All of them." The man walked away, leaving the guards to wrangle with getting each one pinned, shackled, and carted off. Hatsu and Hidoko went down easily and Makoto, being the dumbass he was, didn't even put up a fight. Sky was able to fight them off for a while, but he was eventually worn out, and moved a little too slowly, taking an arrow laced with poison to the leg.

They had a much tougher time getting Fang to cooperate. She kept shifting shape, and none of the shackles they got on her stayed for long. Finally they got fed up and one of them let a poisoned arrow fly. Fang collapsed, still in jackal form, trying to find the strength to get up. It had struck her in the chest, and left a trail of blood as she was carried away by the guards.

/- -\

"Silver Fang? Fang! Wake up, godammit!" Sky shook the jackal's limp form, getting angrier and angrier every time she refused to wake. "What the hell did they put into her? Damn, I've been awake for hours now." He commented, his voice getting lower as he spoke.

Makoto was leaning against one wall of their cell, Hidoko in his lap asleep, when the man from earlier came in. He was accompanied by two guards.

Makoto and Sky were able to get a better look at him now. In the firelight his eyes were as blood red as Fang's, and his hair the same raven color. He wore black leggings, with a black sash holding a sword at his left hip. His powerful arms were covered with silver armor, the left shoulder of which extended over his heart. The rest spread out across his back, with a plate over his stomach. Spikes adorned the shoulders. All in all he looked pretty influential.

"So. Has the perpetrator awakened yet?" He said arrogantly.

"No! No thanks to your poison!" Hatsu yelled. "I don't know where you get off saying she destroyed your city! We've never even been here before!" he pounced at the bars, trying desperately to rip one out of its place.

"Now, now. No need to shout. I'm standing right here." The man quietly told Hatsu. He opened the door of the cell, and walked in, then proceeded to corner the boy. "Besides, you have absolutely no idea who you are dealing with." His eyes began to glow slightly, and Hatsu noticed that his pupils were like a cat's.

A low growl emanated from behind the man. Fang shifted form, and their captor faced her. "And you have the same lack of information." She narrowed her eyes, glaring straight into his.

"Well, well. You've gotten brave over the years." He snickered.

"Just who the hell are you anyway?" Sky demanded.

"I believe your friend here can tell you that. Until then, farewell. And by the way," he backed the demi-goddess into a corner(2), "you might want to remember some things before you go attacking anyone to get out of here."

He left the dungeon, leaving the shapeshifter boiling with rage. _Ra damn it! He would have to be the first person we run into in Egypt. I can't let him bother me. I swear to my father, he'll die before he touches any one of us. I wonder… Is-? No, she couldn't be here…_

"Fang! You're burning up." She was jarred out of her thoughts by Hidoko's concerned voice.

Fang looked over at the eleven -year-old girl. "Yeah. That's what happens when you're pissed off. The adrenaline pumps, your heart rate goes up, your temperature follows it, and then you get mad and start yelling at completely harmless and well-meaning people!" Her voice started out normal and escalated until it filled the expanse of the castle. Hidoko backed away, worried about her friend, until she ran into Makoto. He put his arms around her waist, and picked her up, hugging her close.

Hidoko had begun to cry.

The blue-eyed male cast a worried glance Fang's way before comforting the young ice sorceress. Hatsu, who was usually attached to Fang at the elbow, simply hung by Sky for the rest of the night. The demi-goddess had adopted a corner of the cell, where she sat up against it, dangerously close to tears. Her face, however, showed no emotions, and her eyes weren't about to betray them, either.

A feeling she hadn't felt in centuries was creeping its way into her soul. She wasn't worried about herself. For once. This time she was worried about what he might do to the twins, Sky -Makoto- before he finished her off. He would probably torture them, force her to watch as he increased their agony, moment by moment, while she sat idly by, unable to do anything about it. Then he would let their corpses sit in the dungeon, and rot away. He would toy with her, she knew. Try to break her. Give her chance after chance to save them. Try again and again to get her to be his servant. And then, when he realized she wouldn't break, wouldn't give in, he'd create illusions, make her think about the old days, the few good times. He'll play with her heart, making it seem as if Kurata was still alive, and she was back in Egypt.

And then he would shatter it all.

Bring her down.

Torture her, mentally, physically.

Until she had to give in.

She would die before that happened.

"Fang?" A cautious voice tugged at her mind. She tilted her head toward it slightly, but her gaze was fixed elsewhere. "Are you gonna be okay?" The voice continued. She wanted desperately to shake her head and scream out "No!" and then bury herself in his arms, and let him make everything right. But she knew she couldn't. He wasn't real. What she was seeing -the oasis, the desert, everything. It wasn't real.

"Learon. Stop it." Fang muttered, and it all fell away around her. Kurata's voice faded away, and Learon's replaced it.

"Aw, but it was so much fun. You loved him, didn't you, Kortamu? He was the one thing you cared about in your life- wasn't he? Or is there someone else?" Learon taunted her,using her original name. A vision of Makoto, holding Hidoko in his arms, rocking her slightly in her sleep, slowly falling asleep himself, constructed itself around her. Then the floor gave out, and they both fell to the endless shadows of Learon's mind. Fang ignored him.

He had already begun.

Fang tore herself away from his mind and her own thoughts, and shook off the feeling of dread that came upon her as she began her next action. At the crack of dawn, she shifted into a cat and slipped through the bars. Fang knew Learon was expecting this. But she had to do it. The guards were incapacitated before they knew it. She took the keys, and unlocked the cell. Makoto was astonished that she appeared to be thinking of someone other than herself for once. The others were just happy to be out of the dungeon. She led them through Learon's castle, and they were at the throne room entrance when she stopped suddenly.

"He's in there." Fang didn't know her voice was shaking as she said it. The others did. " I want you -all of you- to bolt for the doors. I'll take care of him." She gave an especially stern look to Makoto, who, she knew, would stay behind whether she liked it or not.

"Who is he, anyway?" Sky asked.

"I'd rather not discuss it right now."

"Oh, but I would."

The group spun, all but Fang, to see who it was. She knew- she always had known.

"All of you," she said, "Go. Now." The twins and Sky obeyed her, knowing by her tone that they would die if they didn't. Makoto hesitated, and she shot a warning glance his way, to which he reacted only by standing his ground.

"So. The dragon has chosen to witness your demise. Fair enough, seeing as his won't be much nicer." Learon drew his sword. Fang mirrored the gesture. The two stood face to face, less than ten feet from each other.

It was that moment that something sparked inside if Makoto's soul. It seemed as if his very essence remembered this very moment, centuries before. An image flashed before his eyes, of a different time, a different place, the same three people- only this time It was Kiro instead of Makoto, and he was against Kortamu.

"Why do you insist on killing me? What do you get out of it?" Fang asked.

"Because. For one," He lunged for her, and she jumped back, "I'm just as power-hungry as you are. And two, you were always father's favorite. And for three," Makoto stood helplessly by as Learon impaled Fang, "I never liked you much anyway." he twisted the sword, and the demi-goddess sunk down to her knees, blood gushing out of the wound as he yanked the bade out of her stomach.

Makoto fell away into a darkness he recognized, yet couldn't name. He had no idea what happened after that for a while. Kiro had taken over Makoto's body. And he would do whatever he wanted with it.

/- -\

By the time he came around, Fang was lurking in a tree, and Sky was sitting at its base, the twins beside him. "He's awake!" Hidoko yelled happily, throwing her arms around him. Makoto smiled, and hugged her back. He looked around for Silver Fang, but she appeared before he could find her. He noticed that she was bandaged up, and asked her about it.

Before she could answer, Sky demanded of her, "Who was he?"

Fang's only words were, "My brother. And Makoto, I need to talk to you." He cast her an odd glance, but followed her into the woods a little ways.

"What do you want?" he asked softly.

"Thank Kiro for me."(3)

-Fin-

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1: Silver Fang is the daughter of Kek, the Egyptian god of darkness. Her mother was mortal.

2: ... I like corners, okay?...

3: Fang and Kiro are old enmies, so the signifigance of this is that she is beginning to forgive him, even though she hates him and would rather kick babies than actually tell him 'thank you'.


End file.
